CNN panelist Julia Ioffe said Monday President Donald Trump has radicalized more people than the Islamic State terrorist group, also known as ISIS.
In the wake of the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Ioffe lambasted Jewish people for supporting Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to its capital, Jerusalem, and also told non-Jewish people to "shut up." On CNN’s "The Lead" with Jake Tapper, Ioffe took it even further.
"This president has radicalized so many more people than ISIS ever did," Ioffe said.
"It's unconscionable for you to say that," commentator David Urban told Ioffe.
Ioffe defended the comment by saying Trump "winks and nods" to white nationalists.
Urban was astounded Tapper did not push back on Ioffe’s claim.
"For you not to push back on that—for her to say, the president of the United States has radicalized more people than ISIS is irresponsible," Urban said.
Tapper refused to challenge the claim, saying Urban simply disagreed. Ioffe stuck by it.
"I think the president has far more supporters who espouse an equally hateful ideology," Ioffe said.
Former campaign aide for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) Symone Sanders sided with Ioffe, saying Trump associates himself with white nationalists and neo-Nazis.
After publication of this story, Tapper noted that "the Republican National Committee is jumping on your comments," to which Ioffe responded that "this has been a very emotional and personally painful time for me. I think I exaggerated and I apologize for that."
Ioffe tweeted in the wake of the massacre on Saturday that Trump "makes this possible" and hoped that American Jews who supported him moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem was worth it.
And a word to my fellow American Jews: This president makes this possible. Here. Where you live. I hope the embassy move over there, where you don’t live was worth it.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) October 27, 2018
UPDATE 5:19 p.m.: This article was updated with Ioffe's apology.